


know that here is home

by FunAndWhimsy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Canon, Slice of Life, pre-kidfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 10:48:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17445464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FunAndWhimsy/pseuds/FunAndWhimsy
Summary: Fresh off a string of missions, Keith and Pidge finally carve out some time to come come home to Shiro.





	know that here is home

**Author's Note:**

> The ship name is Curshkidge, like an especially satisfying sneeze.
> 
> Set roughly 8-10 years postcanon.

Shiro wakes up as early as he ever does, but can't see any reason to get out of bed right away like usual. He fell asleep on his side, Pidge plastered to his back and Keith snugged up tight to his chest, and wakes on his back with one of them tucked under each arm. Pidge is making soft snuffling noises into his armpit; it tickles, and it's kind of gross, but she's kind of gross and he loves her. And Keith is too warm, always so warm, against his side, skin sticking together with the thick sweat of sex and sleep, but all Shiro can do is draw the fingers of his robot hand gently up and down the curve of Keith's spine. He doesn't know how long he just stays there, soaking them in, because if he looks at a clock he's going to get in his head about how late it is to still be in bed. Pidge shifts a little and Shiro hoists her onto his chest so she can breathe something other than armpit hair; Keith frowns and murmurs in his sleep and Shiro squeezes his shoulder. The front door opens and closes, Curtis back from his night away, and Shiro closes his eyes and zones out to the quiet noises of him shuffling around the living room and into the kitchen. 

Eventually the pull of coffee and Curtis becomes just a little stronger than the pull of two warm bodies who aren't in his bed often enough, and like always when he slips out from between them they just kind of roll inward until they're cuddling each other. They're good together, something whole and beautiful and perfect, and it took a long time but now Shiro can just be grateful they want him to be a part of that instead of annoyed at himself for selfishly refusing to let them go. He watches them long enough it starts to feel a little creepy before he manages to tear his eyes away and dig out a pair of clean sweats.

"Morning," Curtis says, leaning against the kitchen counter in a worn t-shirt and soft sweats, clutching his coffee in both hands because he likes how the warm ceramic feels. "No bruises? They're off their game."

"It was all psychological torture," Shiro says, and leans in for a kiss that tastes like sugar because Curtis is half hummingbird. It's better on his lips than in a mug, but Shiro still makes a face.

"I don't know what you expected," Curtis says, and takes another sip. "Good night?"

"Mmhm." Shiro starts fixing his own coffee, which means pouring it in a mug and then drinking it out of the mug with no steps in-between. It's a good system that means he only needs one hand and he can keep the robotic one curled around Curtis' waist, soak up some of him, too. Shiro's a little high on having everyone here, everyone home, for a little while and he's going to be silly and possessive about if he wants to. "Pidge went to dinner with her parents so I got to spend a little time with just Keith, and they fucked me within an inch of my life, and I woke up with _almost_ enough cuddles."

"Almost?"

"The bed sleeps four," Shiro says, and winks. Curtis rolls his eyes and leans forward a little until Shiro goes to him for another soft kiss, and another, until their coffees are forgotten on the counter and Shiro's lips start to feel a little tender. Shiro's in the middle of considering whether it's worth the effort to try to start something or if it'd be better to just kiss lazily like this all fucking day when Keith wolf-whistles in the doorway.

"You didn't wear him out properly," Curtis says, cuts his eyes to Keith but doesn't move away from Shiro so his breath gusts over Shiro's lips. "He's attacking me."

"Bad dog," Keith says mildly, and pats Shiro's butt a couple times on his way past to the coffee maker. 

"You know how I am when I don't get enough exercise."

Both Keith and Curtis snort at that, and Shiro knows how goofy he must look but that doesn't stop the grin that feels like it's tearing his face apart. Sometimes the best way to quiet down the selfish part of him that wants to sabotage Keith's and Pidge's ships so they'll be stuck on Earth for a while (and then, obviously, decide they've had their fill of exploring and adventure, and it's time to settle, and they move in and Shiro passes command of the Atlas on to someone else and he and Curtis take cushy Garrison desk jobs and the house is always full) is to remind himself how fucking _giddy_ he gets the first day one or both of them is back. He's not sure he'd give this feeling up for anything.

Shiro pulls away from Curtis with one more quick kiss, too tempted by the play of muscles in Keith's back while he fixes his coffee and refills the pot to keep from pressing up close behind him and nuzzling into his hair. He kind of needs a shower, but so does Shiro, probably.

There's a small grumbling noise from the direction of the door, and a soft _oof_ from Curtis; Pidge, right on schedule - just far enough behind Keith for the bed to have started cooling down around her - shambling towards the nearest source of body heat like a cold little zombie hungry for brains. Today that's Curtis, freed from Shiro's kiss attacks just to fall prey to Pidge. Oh, the humanity.

"Morning," Curtis says, and bends down to kiss the top of her head. Literally all of Shiro's insides turn to goo, like they always do when he catches Keith or Pidge having little moments with his husband. The longer they're married, the more it happens, but Shiro doesn't seem to be building up a tolerance. There's never going to be any kind of Keith-and-Curtis or Pidge-and-Curtis that isn't about Shiro, but five or six years ago he didn't think they'd ever even have this, the slow melding of the four of them into a unique thing that isn't just Shiro in the center of two opposing forces. Well, not opposing. But.

("You know when you go to a party, and you're not really in the mood for people, and the host has a dog, but they say the dog isn't very friendly, but you try anyway because you'd way rather be hanging out with the dog than the people, and by the end of the night the dog just fucking loves you?"

"Um," Shiro said, glad he's used to Pidge's mile-a-minute tangents so at least he didn't have trouble keeping up. "Yeah, I guess."

"I think Keith and Pidge might be starting to warm up to me," Curtis said.

Shiro didn't laugh, even though the metaphor was so _good_ , God, that's exactly what they're like, because he knew coming into A Thing has been stressful for Curtis and he respected that. "Of course they are. How could they help themselves?")

Curtis hands Pidge his coffee so she can take a few sips, the only one who can tolerate his syrupy garbage coffee, and she makes a few more grouchy animal noises.

"You can go back to bed," Curtis says. "We'll be quiet so you can sleep."

Pidge shakes her head. "All the warm people are in here," she says, and leans harder into him for emphasis. Curtis wraps one arm around her shoulders, shrugs, and goes back to sipping his coffee. 

"I can make breakfast, if you stop pinning me against the counter," Keith says.

"Not sure that's a good deal."

"Pancakes?" Keith says. "We brought back a ton of those berries from Daibazal you like, I'll mix 'em in."

Shiro steps away from Keith so quickly Keith definitely almost falls over, and gets kicked in the shin for his troubles once Keith's balanced again.

"You want us out of your hair?" Curtis asks.

"Nah, just keep the cuddle corner over there," Keith says, and Shiro hurries to obey, to wrap himself around Curtis and Pidge until they make matching grunts because he's squeezing too hard.

*

"How much longer until the Atlas is spaceworthy?" Pidge asks. "I asked Dad but he just made an awful face and changed the subject."

"At least another year, probably two," Curtis says. "It seems like the whole 'Coran starts his overhaul, twenty things explode' thing is slowing down so it's been a while since there's been a significant change in the estimate."

"I can't believe you haven't just hijacked another ship and just taken off with it," Keith says.

"Yeah, well, we're not _you_. The break has been nice, and when we get bored out of our skulls there's always stuff to do at the Garrison."

"And I don't think it's hijacking if it's the Admiral requisitioning another ship from his fleet," Curtis says.

"Oh, right," Keith says. "You didn't know him in his bike thief days, you think he'd actually do the paperwork."

"I wasn't a bike thief," Shiro says.

"'I forgot to sign this out but I don't think anyone else wanted it for the next couple hours so keep a lookout for a couple seconds, okay?'" Keith says, a weirdly accurate impression of Shiro when he was younger, a different kind of reckless, a different kind of anxious. "You can call it whatever you want, I know what I saw."

"It was for the good of the Garrison," Shiro says. "You learned better when you had an outlet."

"They knew it was you, anyway," Pidge says, and both Shiro and Keith turn to stare at her. "I don't know why you still think there's anything you did at the Garrison my dad didn't know about and tell us over dinner. You didn't do anything with the security cameras, Iverson caught you the first night and decided to let it slide because you were such a good boy."

" _That_ I believe," Curtis says, and kisses the top of Shiro's head when he gets up to start clearing dishes.

*

"Where are you headed, when you leave here?" Shiro asks, because he doesn't like thinking about when Pidge and Keith leave again but he likes knowing what their plans are and they both have a shitty habit of not remembering to keep anyone updated without a direct question.

"Daibazal for a while," Keith says. "I sort of just wrapped up a checklist of stuff that needed doing so back to get another checklist of things that are about to fall apart, or find out everything's good and I can stick with the Blades for a while."

"I bet things won't fall apart without you if you really just want to focus on the Blades."

"Probably," Keith says. "But sometimes I need a break from the relief effort stuff, it's - I don't know, like seeing how much still needs to be done wears me down. And having a sort of plan for ten or twelve things that come next makes it a lot easier for Pidge, and for us to plan visits here, so it works out."

"God," Shiro says, "you're the stable, dependable one."

"Ugh." Keith shoves him away but Shiro just laughs and comes right back. "But kind of, yeah. I started, like, decorating my place on Daibazal last time I was there. It's kind of the opposite of feeling restless, I guess? Same itch, just pulling me a different way."

Shiro combs his fingers through Keith's hair, brushes a few stray strands back behind his ear. He looks so relaxed, feels so relaxed sprawled over Shiro like he is, and Shiro would love him if his restlessness never left him alone but he loves Keith like this, too, quiet and soft and happy and ready to think about whether he wants to be the sort of person who sets down roots.

"You know you and Pidge, or either of you, can always move in here. Might be a little cramped with all of us, but we could build an addition, or - "

"I know that's what you want," Keith says. "I think it might be what Pidge wants, eventually? But I think my future's on Daibazal. Like maybe someday I wouldn't turn it down if someone wanted me to lead again. Maybe."

"Wow," Shiro says. "That's - wow."

Keith shrugs a little; Shiro can feel it more than see it. "Pidge and I have been figuring some stuff out, I guess it's been on my mind. She's kind of all over the place right now and it...kind of made it easier for me to figure out that's not all I want anymore. I'm ready for a home base, if nothing else."

"Kogane headquarters."

Keith laughs. "Sure. Holt-Kogane, maybe."

Shiro loves Keith, and he loves Pidge, and he loves the two of them together, would even if he didn't get to be a part of it, and he totally respects that they're very different people than he is and not every trajectory works for every relationship and at the end of the day having it is more important than ritualizing it.

"Married? Wedding? Yes? Can I plan it, when can I start? Curtis can help, he's good at weddings, remember how good our wedding was?"

"Calm down, wow. Probably, but not - I'm just trying to talk her into picking a place to come home to, instead of her thinking of her ship as home." 

"Is she doing okay?"

"Pidge? Yeah. She just gets weird when she feels like she has to make a big life decision because of the one time she did that and ended up a high school dropout stuck in a space war for half a decade. And she gets kind of panicky about, y'know, milestones of adulthood because missing out on being a teenager entirely has her all weird about growing up too fast."

"Fair enough."

"She's got some stuff she wants to talk to you and Curtis about, and she's been needing a little more space than I have lately, but she's fine. She's Pidge, she just needs to untangle all the knots she's got herself in."

*

Pidge is holding three folders stuffed full of God only knows what research when they join her in the living room; she motions Shiro and Curtis to the couch and Keith perches on the arm of her chair. 

"So I've been doing a lot of research," she says, passes one folder to Shiro and one to Curtis, and opens her own. "And there are a few options for you two to have a baby. Fewer than I expected, but apparently humans are kind of weird and ten thousand years of an occupying force messed up a lot of planets' scientific advancement, but still."

"Pidge," Shiro starts, his voice catching in his throat a little already, but she waves him off, in full briefing mode.

"The Garrison repopulation team and a few Alteans have pretty much perfected Altean artificial womb technology for humans, but the process of modifying it created some fundamental incompatibilities with a lot of other species. So, like, the Galra and the Olkari both have really wild molecular-level tech for modifying DNA, and they've both done some cool shit with, like, multiple parents contributing equally to an embryo regardless of sex or whatever. Also some spooky shit, thanks Galra, but the whole thing's an ethical minefield anyway. There've been a handful of experiments with those embryos and the Altean-human wombs, and they have a huge success rate when they take but they take, like, 10% of the time, so not great. Plain old one sperm one egg does great in the artificial wombs, but something in the fiddling process just fucks it up, I don't know, I'm not a biologist."

"Did Pidge just say 'I don't know'?" Curtis asks; his voice is a little shaky, too. They weren't - it was an idle thing, dirty talk Pidge brought up again the morning after because she does that, and a casual _I'll look into it_ , and that was it. 

"That's what I heard," Keith says.

"If you look at the top sheet on the left, the chart there represents all the different methods I've found and their viability for humans, success rate, how dangerous they are, and whether they offer the opportunity for both of you to contribute equally. And you can see there are two obvious contenders - sperm from one of you, egg from me, artificial womb, or a Galra-modified embryo with a person carrying it to term. And the modified embryo, human womb method gives you the ability to have a baby that's both of yours, genetically, if that's important to you. So," she says, leans back a little against Keith, "what are my next nine months going to look like?"

No one says anything. Shiro doesn't even _think_ anything, his whole brain's gone fuzzy, a blank white background and ringing in his ears. Keith's just looking at Pidge with that sweet adoring look he gets that he'd deny if anyone pointed it out, and _oh_ , that's why it was on his mind, why they've been talking about - of course. Fuck, they're so good to him. Shiro glances to his side to see Curtis staring at Pidge, mouth hanging open, looking as vacant as Shiro feels.

"I broke them," Pidge says.

"I told you not to close with that line."

"I wanted to be cute," she says, and Keith laughs.

"You," Curtis says, but that's all he says, and he looks at Shiro like he's _lost_. He wants this maybe more than Shiro does, grew up like Pidge in a super tight-knit family and lost them all to the Galra, and he misses having that kind of family, and Pidge, who gets it a lot more than Shiro and Keith do, just sat down and handed it to him. 

"You don't have to," Shiro says, and Keith and Pidge both groan and roll their eyes. Fair enough. "Sorry, instinct. But you don't - never mind. You're sure?"

"I've been sitting on this research for almost a year," she says, laughs a little at herself. "I promise, I've thought about it enough."

"What - okay," Curtis says. "In your ideal outcome, which one do we choose?"

"The one you want most," she says, and starts laughing at them even before Shiro's managed to start rolling his eyes. It doesn't stop him, though, and based on the way Keith's smirking at them it didn't stop Curtis, either. "I don't care! Dad wants me to help him out with a project that'd have me on Earth doing desk work for the next year anyway, so if my body's in play it's not going to mess up any plans. I want what you want."

"Shiro," Keith says, low and serious, and when Shiro looks up at him he's giving him one of those _looks_ like he can see right through Shiro, like he's torn him open to look around inside. "Say what you're thinking."

"I - " Shiro starts, and stops, and frowns at Keith, and sighs. "I'd really like to have a baby with you. Like, a lot. _With_ you."

"You'd be so fucking cute pregnant," Curtis blurts out, like he's been trying to stop himself for too long and all his willpower gave out. He's not wrong, and Pidge laughs, her cheeks a little pink. She's not - she wouldn't say _I want what you want_ and not mean it, but looking at her glowing and laughing - fuck.

"Come _here_ ," Shiro says, shoots his Altean arm out to grab her and yank her from the chair to the couch. She lands in between them with a loud _oof_ and squeals when Shiro swoops in to kiss her breathless. Curtis leans in to press quick kisses to her forehead, cheeks, everywhere he can reach, and maybe they're a little bit smothering her but Shiro can't find it in him to care. 

"Help," she gasps, reaching out for Keith, but all that gets her is Keith crashing onto the couch to join the pile. 

**Author's Note:**

> Keith goes back to Daibazal for three days and comes back with sixty excuses for "needing" to stay on Earth for a while & they can hear Krolia making fun of him all the way across the universe.


End file.
